The Beauty is the Beast: Malin Byström sings a chilling Salome

By David Karlin, 09 January 2018

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“Rarely can such beauty of voice have been combined with a snarl of such viciousness”

Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 8 January 2018

Strauss R., Salome

The Royal Opera

Henrik Nánási, Conductor

Sir David McVicar, Director

Es Devlin, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Malin Byström, Salome

Michael Volle, Jochanaan

Michaela Schuster, Herodias

John Daszak, Herodes

David Butt Philip, Narraboth

Christina Bock, Herodias' Page

Dietmar Kerschbaum, 1st Jew

Paul Curievici, 2nd Jew

Hubert Francis, 3rd Jew

Konu Kim, 4th Jew

Jeremy White, 5th Jew

Kihwan Sim, 1st Nazarene

Dominic Sedgwick, 2nd Nazarene

Royal Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

The Turn of the Screw at RBO Linbury: Darkness and denial

Eleanor Knight, 26th March

Natalie Abrahami’s mesmerising new production of Britten’s ghostly tale of sexual abuse is very dark indeed.

*****

A riveting Rigoletto revival at the Royal Opera House

Dominic Lowe, 25th March

Sir Mark Elder celebrates 50 years at Covent Garden by returning to his first opera there in 1976 – Verdi's Rigoletto – in a revival of Oliver Mears' excellent 2021 production.

****1

Siegfried at the RBO: Kosky and Pappano surprise and delight

David Karlin, 17th March

A revelatory orchestral performance and a cast led by Andreas Schager, Christopher Maltman and Elisabeth Strid make this a Siegfried for the record books.

*****

Terfel’s craggy Boris Godunov returns to Covent Garden

Mark Pullinger, 29th January

The second revival of Richard Jones' staging of Mussorgsky's original 1869 version of Boris Godunov once again stars the Welsh knight.

****1

Ermonela Jaho returns in triumph to The Royal Opera’s Traviata

Mark Valencia, 8th January

Richard Eyre’s 32-year-old production is rarely out of The Royal Opera’s repertoire for more than a few months at a time, but this particular revival proves very special.

*****

Turandot drowned in an orchestral tsunami at The Royal Opera

David Karlin, 15th December

Andrei Șerban’s 40 year old take on Puccini's tale of the ice princess largely stands the test of time, but Netrebko and Eyvazov are short of their best form.

***11

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David Karlin

David is a co-founder of Bachtrack. He is a musical omnivore interested in almost all types of music, but with a particular love of Italian opera. You can contact him from this link.